Your weight loss is important.
There, I said it and I won’t take it back.
Despite all the shared images of scales with positive messages on.
Kind people telling you that you should use a measuring tape and your clothes as a guide.
And your partner telling you he loves you just the way you are and you should ignore the number on the dial.
You can’t escape the fact that if you are overweight and you need to get smaller, you will have to lose weight to achieve it.
If you are 5′ 2”, 18 stone and a size 22 you’re not going to still be 18 stone when you’re in a size 14 are you? So weight loss is important.
How else will you gauge your progress? Why else will your health improve? Your joint pain go? Blood pressure drop?
People still love to hear a wonderful weight loss story. They get it, they understand it and they can relate to it.
But here is the important bit…weight loss is only important when you are losing it.
If you aren’t losing it then it doesn’t matter! Because we can use other tools to measure your progress.
That’s when a measuring tape and your clothes and photos are all fantastic opportunities to give yourself the pat on the back you need to keep you motivated and moving forward with your body transformation.
People who join FastTrack Fit Camp who really don’t have much fat to lose – change little in weight, but a lot in inch loss.
People who join Fit Camp who have more to lose to start with lose both weight and inches pretty quickly.
And people who don’t want to lose weight at all, but just want to get fitter. Change shape anyway and look more athletic and healthy.
http://youtu.be/3fnEHurCAlI
You see the nearer you are to your target or ideal weight the less weight you will shift. You will lose fat and build muscle. Muscle is more dense than fat and takes up less space on you, so you will shrink but weigh about the same (sometimes heavier…)
So in summary:
Don’t get miffed when I have no sympathy for you that you’ve not lost any weight, but you have lost inches, changed shape and gone down clothes sizes. That won’t wash with me. 🙂
Don’t be confused if I congratulate someone on 10lbs / 2 stone / 3 stone weight loss when I’ve just told you that ‘weight doesn’t matter’.
Do make sure you take a balanced and practical approach to improving your health. If you are overweight — you’ll need to get lighter.
If you are a size 12 hoping to get to a size 10 don’t expect a lot of weight loss. Work on inch loss.
And absolutely, definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, never, ever, ever, EVER weigh yourself daily, twice daily or hourly. Once every week or so is enough to keep you focussed and driven.
If you can’t trust yourself give your scales to a friend to look after for you — you’ll be so glad you did!
Heidi Strickland-Clark runs FastTrack Fit Camp, a health focussed bootcamp in the Wokingham area with venues in Swallowfield, Yateley, Winnersh, Wokingham, Twyford & Warfield. She has a passion for all things food and health related and has more than a healthy preference for good, black coffee.